First off, I should explain that #PoP2014 is short hand for the Pedal on Parliament (PoP) protest ride which will be taking place on the 26th April this year. The first PoP took place in 2012, and when we started planning it we thought that it would be a one-off event, but things didn’t work out that way. When we were planning the 1st PoP, we didn’t think that many people would actually turn up, how wrong we were. We were far from alone at being worried how vulnerable road users are treated and wanting this to change.

The PoP Manifesto takes an evidence based approach, inspired by the idea that a great city is not one that has highways, but one where a child on a tricycle or bicycle can go everywhere safely (Enrique Peñalosa). Active travel is a great idea, as it achieves so many policy objectives: it is clean, it is green, it reduces congestion in towns and cities, it is good for developing the sustainable local economies which much of Scotland needs, and it is healthy. Yet we have a Government which ignores all the evidence, which talks about making Scotland a modern Nordic nation, but then does the opposite. Far from learning from the Nordic Nations, such as Denmark’s green economy and Finland’s turn-around from being the sickest country in Europe (a title Scotland now holds) to being one of the most healthy. Successive Scottish (and British) administrations have treated roads deaths as being something beyond their control and refuse to take simple actions which could reduce the death rate. For this reason we have to stand up and make our voices heard, tell our elected representatives that it DOESN’T have to be this way. There are countries just across the North Sea which show that change is possible, and that this can lead to a better quality of life for all.

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One Response
to “ Why we need #PoP2014 ”

It’s a bit far for me to get there, but hope it goes well and that the politicians gradually see that it makes sense.

If it is any consolation many of our local politicuians are as bad if not worse at missing evidence. It is frustrating to see Freiburg & others get better and better infrastructure and see our local town stuck in the 1960’s.